Women - men - gender. - Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

enjoyed the right to vote. Fifty years ago the Act on Equal Rights of Men
and Women in the fi eld of Civil Law came into effect. Twenty years ago,
a SPD Party Convention in Münster passed a memorable resolution on
the quota for women (see the conversation with Dr.Hans-Jochen Vogel
on page 28)
Women, and a small number of – for most of the time hesitant – solidary
men, had to fi ght every inch of the way. The reason for this was that any
progress achieved by women meant a loss in power for men. With the
passage of every law that brought women closer to their goal of achieving
equality, they became competitors for jobs, mandates and public
attention. It is only in recent times that the discussion is taking a different
direction: the typically male career profi les (to which women
were also expected to conform if they wanted to be successful) are, today,
viewed sceptically. Older men regret their omissions, and are aware
that they lived like strangers within their families. Younger men are trying
to draw lessons from these mistakes and are trying to play a more
active role within the family, and discussing with their partners how to
share the burden of family and job responsibilities more equally.
The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung has supported these relatively new social
discussions and through its persistence, been responsible for the inclusion
of the issue of gender mainstreaming, together with science and
politics in the political agenda. Gender analysis (see Barbara Stiegler,
page 18) will make men and women more sensitive to the causes of
discriminatory treatment. [Gendermainstreaming] means a declaration
FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG
WOMEN MEN GENDER
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